#arthur caplan

[prensard]

Crean unos nanotubos capaces de ‘comerse’ los microplásticos de los océanos Estos diminutos resortes atacan a los microplásticos convirtiéndolos en sales inofensivas, dióxido de carbono y agua.

[dailybrian]

Jahi McMath Dies Four Years After Being Declared Brain-Dead

New on www.DailyBrian.com

http://bit.ly/2zLI73c

Jahi McMath Dies Four Years After Being Declared Brain-Dead

A photo of Jahi McMath is shown at funeral services for McMath at Acts Full Gospel Church in Oakland, California, July 6. Dozens of family members, friends and other mourners filled the Northern California church for the funeral of the teenage girl at the center of a medical and religious......

[investmart007]

WASHINGTON  | Medical experts worry about testing DNA to reunite families

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/BuWGBn

WASHINGTON  | Medical experts worry about testing DNA to reunite families

WASHINGTON  — The Trump administration’s use of DNA testing to match migrant children separated from their parents is justifiable as a last resort, medical experts say, but raises a host of ethical problems.

That includes the risk of damaging the family fabric by revealing that an adult thought to be the biological parent really is not.

A federal judge in California on Tuesday said DNA testing should be limited to cases in which the parent-child relationship can’t be established through documents such as birth certificates and passports.

The government had argued that DNA testing is faster than authenticating documents, and protects children — especially the youngest — from being handed to someone who may not be their biological parent.

Officials said testing on 102 migrant children under 5 years old revealed five cases in which adults claiming to be the parent actually were not, including two in which the results came as a surprise to the adults.

Ethicists say that’s just one situation where problems arise.

DNA testing “is one of the few tools to fix this miserable mess,” said Arthur Caplan, head of the division of medical ethics at the New York University School of Medicine. “But it would be the height of irresponsibility to do it without competent counselors used to dealing with these kinds of genetic discoveries.”

Thomas Murray, president emeritus of the Hastings Center, said “misattributed” fatherhood, and even motherhood, is more common than most people realize.

DNA testing is ideal for determining biological parenthood, but “a direct genetic tie is not the only — or even in all cases the best way — of determining who is genuinely in caring parental relationship with a child,” Murray said. The Hastings Center is a bioethics research institute.

“This could actually hurt the child,” Murray added.

Nothing could be further from the government’s intent, said Chris Meekins, a senior Health and Human Services Department official helping to oversee the court-ordered reunification of more than 2,000 children separated from their parents at the border.

Not only is DNA testing fast, taking about a week, but Meekins said it also protects children from being returned to someone who may not be their parent, and could do them harm. Background checks on parents in immigration custody have turned up eight cases of people with serious criminal violations, and one credible allegation of child abuse, he said.

“HHS could have transferred every child out of their care to a parent currently in (immigration) custody if we did not take into account child safety,” said Meekins.

“Our process may not be as quick as some would like, but there is no question it is protecting children,” Meekins added.

But U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego said Tuesday the practice should be curtailed.

The judge said DNA testing needed to be done only when parent-child relationships can’t be proven through birth certificates or other ways, casting aside the government’s position that all parents and children should be tested.

Sabraw, who ordered the reunification of families, said the government can use DNA testing but solely when necessary and with parental consent. Samples should be destroyed in seven days and not used for any other purpose.

Ethicists say the government’s DNA testing also raises questions of privacy, informed consent and whether counseling is provided to families when the tests reveal unexpected results.

“Non-paternity problems can play out in all kinds of ways,” said Caplan. Kids “may say, ‘You’re not my dad, but I want to find out who is my dad.'”

ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said DNA testing in every case simply is not needed. What about adoptive parents, he asked?

“The DNA is not conclusive,” he said.

Seattle lawyer Janet Gwilym, who has long worked with refugees, said it’s not that unusual to find an adult caring for a child who is not theirs.

“In the chaos of war or unpredictable situations, other people will take a child in and raise them as their own,” said Gwilym, with Kids in Need of Defense.

She recalled a married couple from Ethiopia, whom she’d represented years ago. They took in and raised an infant, but when they became refugees they could not prove legal parentage, so the family was separated. Among the complications: The building where they’d tried to register legal papers burned down.

Gwilym said it took about a year of legal work to reunite that family.

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By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press

[dreowyn]

Baylor U. professor & M.D. Carol Baker: 'Let's just get rid of all the whites in the United States'

Baylor U. professor & M.D. Carol Baker: ‘Let’s just get rid of all the whites in the United States’

On May 9, 2016, in Atlanta, Georgia, the National Meningitis Association (www.nmaus.org) hosted a panel discussion, “Achieving Childhood Vaccine Success in the U.S.,” before its “Give Kids a Shot” Gala. The panel addressed a range of issues including parents who opt out of childhood vaccine requirements, physicians who stray from the recommended vaccine schedule, and the role of the media in…

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[technewsdirectory]

Theranos gets wrist-slap fine from feds, agrees to do no clinical lab work for two years

http://dlvr.it/Nw4QpL

[davidrussellschilling]

Biotech Safety, Social, Moral And Ethical Considerations"

Biotech Safety, Social, Moral And Ethical Considerations”

C O N T E N T S:

KEY TOPICS

A main reason for this is that SSI itself typically involves scientific knowledge, knowledge of other dimensions, moral judgments and social elements (Kolst2000 ), tends to have implicit and explicit ethical elements, and requires advanced ethical reasoning (Zeidler & Sadler, 2008 ).(More…)

Highly Principled – Proves to be a professional of unquestionable integrity,…

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[gorskon]

NYU holds a conference on vaccine resistance. Antivaxers lose it.

NYU holds a conference on vaccine resistance. Antivaxers lose it.

One of the great things about America has been the First Amendment, particularly the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. These are rights allow us to gather together to protest when we see something that we don’t think is right and want to change. Unfortunately, there is one downside to these freedoms, and that is that cranks, quacks, and outright twits have just as much right to…

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[gorskon]

What conflicts of interest are not with respect to vaccines

What conflicts of interest are not with respect to vaccines

I didn’t think I’d be revisiting this topic again so soon, but damned if Alice Dreger didn’t write something that comes pretty close to demanding that I do so. I tried to resist, but unfortunately could not. Basically, I’m getting really, really tired of Dreger. Why do I say that? It’s because I’m having a harder and harder time not thinking that she has antivaccine proclivities. I don’t want to.…

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